I think Merkel pulled a blinder; "tell us what you want instead of the Ireland backstop and we'll think about it after all it's half* your island with your half being the bit that's causing the problems, oh within 30 days too"

(*ish)

Tomorrow PMBJ will get "by the way you owe us £39bn whatever" from Macron

Both the BBC & Sky News said pretty much the same thing....that he was reading from his script without really listening to what Macron was saying, and that what he did say was aimed more at the pro-Leavers and a potential forthcoming GE.

Brevet Cable wrote:Both the BBC & Sky News said pretty much the same thing....that he was reading from his script without really listening to what Macron was saying, and that what he did say was aimed more at the pro-Leavers and a potential forthcoming GE.

i think what he is trying to do is drag the leavers to his side as well as some middle grounders with the hope of a deal. get a GE, get a majority without the DUP, agree to a border in the sea. NI stays in the customs union, EU agree to talk about the future relationship. no backstop, boom brexit.

Nice bit of weasle-wording by PMBJ, though, in saying that 'under no circumstances will the UK put up checks and controls on the Irish border'.No mention of not doing so a few miles from the actual border, then

Brevet Cable wrote:Nice bit of weasle-wording by PMBJ, though, in saying that 'under no circumstances will the UK put up checks and controls on the Irish border'.No mention of not doing so a few miles from the actual border, then

there were some clowns on the radio this morning saying they didn't mind if the border was open, completely ignoring the fact that if people cross from RoI into NI there is then no passport checks before they get into the rest of the UK.

funny how "taking control of our borders" all of a sudden means "taking control of our borders, apart from the only actual border between the UK and EU"

Brevet Cable wrote:Nice bit of weasle-wording by PMBJ, though, in saying that 'under no circumstances will the UK put up checks and controls on the Irish border'.No mention of not doing so a few miles from the actual border, then

there were some clowns on the radio this morning saying they didn't mind if the border was open, completely ignoring the fact that if people cross from RoI into NI there is then no passport checks before they get into the rest of the UK.

funny how "taking control of our borders" all of a sudden means "taking control of our borders, apart from the only actual border between the UK and EU"

I understand that there is already a means of monitoring the free movement that occurs between both Ireland and NI and the UK either by sea or air. It probably involves people without UK or Irish nationality making one way journeys. And because Ireland isn't in Schengen there is no passport free movement from French ports or any non UK airports that fly into the Republic.

A couple of years ago there was a big hoo har about extra checks coming into Schengen that was causing big delays at some continental airports. It was pointed out that it also affected flights from Ireland as they had to queue up with all the Brits in the same way. Once they start treating us as a Third Country it's been predicted that those checks will take even longer, will they open Ireland only passport queues? I noticed dozens of new e-passport gates ready to go at Palma de Mallorca in March so they appear to be gearing up for something. I can't see the huge immigration halls you see in US airports for only a couple of countries. Nor can I see anyone wanting 5 hour delays for UK passengers (not least the package tour firms who have to get the passengers out of the airport and onto a coach) which were postulated.

Nobody's actually said how after Brexit the UK is going to discriminate between EU citizens after free movement ends, as to whether they are coming here on business, holiday or actually live here (or claim to)

I flew to Dublin yesterday and had to show a passport to gain entry into Ireland.

On my return I didn’t need to show any identification to get back into Manchester, we arrived in the baggage hall as per an internal flight.

The U.K. and Ireland have agreement called the Common Travel Area with Ireland, the Irish currently do checks on U.K. travellers, the U.K. don’t bother. This Agreement supersedes our membership of the EU.

Not to be confused with the Common Transit Convention that allows free passage of goods between states until the final destination where any duties or customs are paid. Which we have signed up to staying in , Deal, No Deal or Remain. Meaning unhindered passage of goods from/to Ireland through the U.K. from/to Europe if needed.

Zoom wrote:You actually had to go through passport control rather than just showing it at the UK boarding gate? that's odd because you don't need a passport to travel to Ireland unless you go on Ryanair

Through passport control at Dublin airport. I failed at the i- passport gate and had to show it to the passport officer who scanned it. Proper passport check.

That wiki article says Since 1997, the Irish government has imposed systematic identity checks on air passengers coming from the United Kingdom and selective checks on sea passengers, and occasional checks on land crossings.

Edit - I suppose on reading it, I could have shown my driving licence to the passport person at Dublin as it should be an ID Check rather than a passport check.

Disclaimer-I have spell/grammar checked this post, it may still contain mistakes that might cause offence.

The only new agreement listed since that was first published several months or more ago is the ROK.To be fair, we do currently export about £2bn more to them than we import ( something like £7.8bn Vs £5.2bn ) although a couple of years ago it was pretty level-pegging.

Wonder how that'll change in the event of 'no-deal' and us defaulting to the basic WTO rules?

Brevet Cable wrote:The only new agreement listed since that was first published several months or more ago is the ROK.To be fair, we do currently export about £2bn more to them than we import ( something like £7.8bn Vs £5.2bn ) although a couple of years ago it was pretty level-pegging.

Wonder how that'll change in the event of 'no-deal' and us defaulting to the basic WTO rules?

Never said we would.The trade differential changed in a large part due to ROK manufacturers set up manufacturing plants in mainland Europe.From what I can gather, these aren't included in the import totals from the ROK.In the event of WTO, it could lead to Hyundai/Kia exporting those models from Korea instead of Europe to the UK.